Shades Of Black: A Black Dawn
by fireflashphoenix
Summary: AU 20 year old Bellatrix can't have children. what happens when she accompanies the Dark Lord to the Potters on 31 oct 1981 and maternal feelings arrise. read and reveiw.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters attached to the books.

Shades Of Black – A Black Dawn.

Prologue.

'Who'd have thought that a bruise could hurt so much?' 20 year old Bellatrix Black thought to herself as followed the Dark Lord up the path to #12 Phoenix Crescent, Godrics Hollow, on Halloween night, 1981.

Her black-eye only just starting to fade from the beating the now deceased husband and brother-in-law had given her a month ago – just before she killed them.

They had beaten her because she couldn't conceive an heir to the LeStrange Family; just because her ancestors were so inbred that she was born infertile.

The healers at St Mungo's had explained it to her, had changed he views on muggleborns permanently; they don't dilute the magical blood like she was taught, they were purifying it.

That was a month ago, now she was slowly pulling the Dark Lords forces apart from the inside while sending tip-off's about the Dark Lords plans to Dumbledore and his order.

She knew that she could probably help more if she joined the order as a spy, like she knew Severus was, but Dumbledore is a stupid manipulative old fool that would sign away her life in an instant if he thought it would help him to rid the world of darkness.

And since she happened to be partial to the dark arts herself, she was on his list of 'people to remove'.

She was pulled from her memories by the Dark Lord sending a powerful version of the reductor hex at the door of the house with a muttered: "Reducticus." Causing the door to explode inwards in a storm of fragments and splinters.

Bella heard a muffled cry that sounded like; "It's him. Lily, take Harry and go. I'll hold him!"

This caused the Dark Lord to laugh his cold, cruel laugh before shooting a jet of green light out of his wand at the man in the hallway, who promptly dropped down as dead as a stone.

The Dark Lord walked up the stairs at the end of the hallway, headed up to a room that was emitting the sounds of a crying baby being comforted by its mother.

Bellatrix followed after closing the eyes of the deceased James Potter, and silently apologised that she couldn't do anything to help; she'd fancied him since she started Hogwarts, he was four years ahead of her and by the time she was mature enough to attempt to try something with him, he'd gotten with Evans.

She was five feet from the door into young Harry Potters room when there was a flash of green light followed by a thud signifying the death of Lily Evans-Potter.

Bella arrived in the entrance to the room to see the Dark Lord aim his wand at little Harry.

She had seen and done some horrible things in her life, but she couldn't let anyone kill a child, she felt something in her chest awaken, emotions long dead igniting.

She stepped forwards to pick the boy up, to stop his cries like a mother would, to shield him from all the bad people and horrors in the world, but it was too late.

The Dark Lord spoke the killing curse.

She stopped, unable to move as she watched horror stricken as the curse hit the child on the forehead.

But it didn't kill him as it should have; instead it bounced back on the Dark Lord, cutting of his laughter like a sharp blade cutting meat.

The Dark Lord collapsed, gasping for breath.

Bella grabbed Harry and ran as fast as she could from the room, trying to escape the energy congregating around the dying Dark Lord while trying to ignore the excruciating pain in her left forearm.

Just before she cleared the anti-apparition barriers, she was sent flying through the air, clear of the wards, by a blast of energy that demolished the house behind her.

She managed to twist in the air so she landed on her side instead of on top of Harry, as soon as she was able to concentrate enough, she apparated them both away. She decided there and then that she would follow the law, for once, and adopt him legally the next day.


	2. Growing Up

Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Harry Potter.

Shades Of Black – A Black Dawn.

Chapter 1: Growing Up.

Six-year-old Harry Potter was having fun because his adoptive mother; Bellatrix Black had taught him how to control his accidental magic at four years old.

The aim had been to stop him from destroying things when they made him jump, or hurting people when they scared him…but he took it one or two steps further than that.

Right now he was playing with his favourite toys; his plastic muggle soldiers.

And using his 'accidental' magic to animate them; right now the Tan army was winning, their three tanks blowing chunks out of the Greens, but the Greens had reinforcements flying in.

Just as the two Green 'Huey' choppers reached firing range, they dropped out of the air and the rest of the pieces stopped moving and sending tiny bursts of magic from their weapons.

Seconds later Harry keeled over sleeping from the exhaustion.

Bella was impressed, she was watching from the doorway since Harry always sat with his back to it, he'd managed to keep his toys animated for two minutes, he normally managed three, but that was with half the men and no flying ones.

His magic was growing exponentially, it should be impossible, but then again, no one has ever thought of trying this before.

And she knew he was powerful beyond belief, she'd found the binds on his magic when he was three, binds that reeked of Dumbledore.

She'd been researching them since then, trying to find a way to remove them.

But Dumbledore was too powerful for her to remove them…though she had managed to reduce the amount of time it would take for them to wear off; they should wear out around his fifteenth birthday instead of his thirtieth.

Eight-year-old Harry followed his mother down Knockturn alley and into a small shop that most would miss if they didn't know it was there.

Entering the shop he saw what looked like animal parts and blocks of wood.

"Hello." His mum, or Trixy as he'd taken to calling her when he was in an annoying mood, called into the shop, her wand out ready for anything while her violet eyes scanned the shop for threats.

"Well, I never expected to see you back here Bella, how is that wand doing?" a man said as he stepped through a doorway, smiling a toothless smile.

"It's fine, I'm here to get Harry a wand. Some fool looking for revenge, probably Lucius, attacked the manor a few days ago. Anyway Harry here needs a wand so he can protect himself."

"Ah, I see, you want one of me so there's no ministry interference. Well come here Mr…do I call you Black or Potter?"

"Either." Harry said in his snobby voice.

"Harry, be nice and stop talking like my sister, bloody stuck up cow…you didn't hear that, did you Harry?"

"I just heard something about not talking like aunty Cissy."

"Good."

"Well then. Mr Potter, come here please, pick one out." He said as he presented him with some blocks of wood.

Harry passed his finger across the pieces of wood until he stopped at a strange grey one; it felt like…home, belonging, loving…it felt right.

"Hmm…unusual, that's the only piece of that wood I've ever come across. No one knows what its called, it has many names…deathwood, healwood, warwood…many names. All that is known about it is that the elves of old used to make battle staffs out of that wood, if the high and dark elves trust it, then I can safely say it has no affiliation…neither dark nor light."

"Okay…now the core." He said handing him a tray of animal parts.

Harry closed his eyes and ran a finger across them again, this time he stopped between two, he wanted to go both ways, opening his eyes, he say that he was hovering between a white feather with a black tip, and a vial of an acid green fluid.

"Interesting…two cores, a white phoenix feather and basilisk venom…one light one dark…both very powerful." The man said as he put the tray down before handing Harry a plain black wand. As Harry took it, it lengthened and moulded to a shape that was comfortable and stay comfortable when he was bigger.

"Okay, I'll have your wand ready in four hours, come back anytime after then."

Harry and 'Trixy' left the shop and headed out into the Muggle world to see if they could buy a muggle house to hide in for a while.

Two hours and four sore feet later, the duo signed for a detached house in a nice muggle neighbourhood: three bedrooms, a kitchen, living/dining room, three toilets, one downstairs, one upstairs en suite with a shower, and another upstairs with a bath.

They spent the next hour and a half discussing home improvements with each other and ended up making a list;

#1: gas fire has to go – replace with proper fire – connect to floo network.

#2: add conservatory – use for lessons.

#3: enhance bedrooms – bigger.

#4: enhance bathroom/shower room – bigger.

#5: standard safety wards/light muggle repelling charms.

The list went on and on. Once they had decided on what their new home would be like, Trixy apparated them both to their old home (LeStrange manor) where a wizarding real estate salesman was waiting for them.

After spending the next three quarters of an hour showing him around, he agreed to buy it off them and sell it on as if it was once his own, with fake documents of course.

What surprised them both was how valuable the place was, their new house cost them 500,000 pounds (100,000 galleons) but their old one was sold for 750,000 galleons (3,750,000 pounds).

They'd lived there for a long time and thought very little of the place, so it's monetary value came as a huge shock.

After a while they managed to get enough of the shock out of their systems to go pick up Harry's wand.

Nine-year-old Harry was sat in his lessons with his best friend Blaise sat next to him, they'd been having these lessons since they were five, either Trixy or Gregorio, Blaise's dad, would teach them reading/writing, basic Arithmancy, potions or ancient runes for two hours a day, often followed by basic duelling practice for half an hour; their parents refused to teach them any other kind of magic until they were at Hogwarts and could restrain their urges to cast spells at everything they saw.

Bella had long ago explained why she doesn't get along with her sister, Narcissa, anymore to her other sister, Andromeda, and had since rebuilt many of the bonds that were broken when Andromeda was disowned.

That meant that in the summers, his favourite 'cousin' 'Nymphie' doted on him. Of course only him and Blaise could get away with calling her that because she thought Harry was such a cute, cuddly and adorable little boy.

Although that often meant that Harry felt like he had three mums, four when Blaise was in that sort of mood.

Seven days before Harry's eleventh birthday, two eagerly anticipated letters arrived as Harry and Blaise (Blaise having slept over for the night) ate breakfast in the kitchen.

"Harry, Blaise, look what just arrived for you." Bella said as she passed them the letters, or more precisely their Hogwarts letters.

Harry leapt to his feet and grabbed his letter from Bella, eagerly breaking the seal and yanking out the yellowish parchment before reading it:

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY_

_Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore_

_(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

_Dear Mr Potter,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on 1st September. We await your owl no later than 31st July._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

_Deputy Headmistress_

Harry just looked at Blaise's glowing face for a moment before turning to Bella. "I'll get Mercury." He said before bursting out of the kitchen into the dining room, turning left, he shot into the living room before turning left again and shooting upstairs, heading for Bella's room to get her owl, mercury.


	3. Diagon Alley

Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Harry Potter.

Shades Of Black – A Black Dawn.

Chapter 2: Diagon Alley.

Stepping out of The Leaky Cauldron, the beauty of the place as usual, took Harry aback; it seemed to glow in the summer sun, it glittered in the snow, it blinded you in a lightning storm…it was magnificent.

He momentarily cast his mind back to the people he had just seen, something didn't seem…right. His mind settled on the quivering man he had seen that seemed to be terrified of his own shadow.

Pathetic.

Harry knew acting when he saw it, especially when it was that badly done.

Casting aside the thought for future reference he got back to the task at hand, but that required a trip to the bank first.

As they passed Quality Quidditch Supplies, he spotted the most beautiful thing he had ever seen sat in the window.

The Nimbus 2000 racing broom.

Harry knew that it was coming out even though the project had been kept hushed up – having a mother that owned 15 of Nimbus Corporation had its benefits.

He would have already owned one if it wasn't for the 18 month delay on it's testing.

'It's about time it was released, it took long enough for the development to be completed.' He thought to himself.

As he approached Gringotts he noticed the usual goblin guard, in the scarlet and gold uniform of one of the best goblin mercenary units in recent years, on duty, stepping through the bronze doors he saw the familiar engraved warning on the silver doors in front of them:

_Enter, stranger, but take heed_

_Of what awaits the sin of greed,_

_For those who take, but do not earn,_

_Must pay most dearly in their turn,_

_So if you seek beneath our floors_

_A treasure that was never yours,_

_Thief, you have been warned, beware_

_Of finding more than treasure there._

Harry shook his head at the poem, goblins don't need poems to discourage theft, and they just need to give that malicious glare that they used on anyone that looked even slightly shifty.

As they looked around, they spotted that the most intimidatingly huge man Harry had ever seen took up the shortest queue, this had to be Hogwarts keeper of keys and grounds; Rubeus Hagrid.

Having had Nymphie, Bella and Rommy, as Harry called his 'aunt' Andromeda, describe the man to them several times, they would recognise him anywhere.

Sliding up behind him, they heard him quietly telling the teller that he had Mr Potters vault key because Dumbledore had recovered it from the ruins of Godric Hollow and apparently misplaced it until a few days ago.

Bella was about to speak up when Hagrid pulled a letter out of one of his pockets and handed it to the goblin, while whispering something they couldn't hear.

"Hagrid, I see you have my sons vault key, we had wondered what happened to it. The goblins refused to replace it because their record showed that it still existed but refused to tell us where thanks to an order issued by Dumbledore." Bella said in a voice just loud enough for everyone in the lobby to hear, her dislike of Dumbly was well known.

"I'm sure 'e had 'is reasons Ms Black. No poin' bein' bi'er about him just 'cause 'e con'ested your guardianship o'er 'arry, he belongs with his blood relations, not his godfathers' cousin." Hagrid said back.

"The Wizengamot apparently decided otherwise. Now, may we have Harry's key…please." She hissed coldly as her eyes lit up in anger.

"'ere, 'ave it." He said as he passed the key to Bella before turning to Harry. "I'd stay away from te likes of 'er if I were you."

"I love her, she loves. I've met my…Relatives, and I'm glad to say I don't live with them." Harry said before turning to one of the goblin tellers nearby. "Excuse me, but may we make a withdrawal from my vault and my friend Blaise' one."

"No problem young sir, may we check the keys?" the teller asked politely. He knew of the Childs open mind and polite ways from the other goblins that had served him and his mother, he'd brought her views on human dominance down a peg or two, so he was willing to look past his disgust at the human race in general and be nice to the boy.

"Griphook, take them to their vaults please." The teller said after quickly checking the keys.

A young goblin stepped forwards and beckoned for them to follow him down to the carts, leaving behind a bewildered Hagrid with one thing going through his head: 'since when have goblins been nice to anyone?'

As they stepped out of the bank, Harry pulled his list of required things out and handed it to his mum after reading it himself.

_HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY_

_Uniform_

_First years will require:_

_Three sets of plain work robes (black)_

_One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear_

_One pair of protective gloves (dragonhide or similar)_

_One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)_

_Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry nametags_

_Set books_

_All students should have a copy of the following:_

_The Standard Book of Spells (grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk_

_A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot_

_Magical Theory by Alberta Waffling_

_A Beginners Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch_

_One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore_

_Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger_

_Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander_

_The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quintin Trimble_

_Other equipment_

_1 Wand_

_1 Cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)_

_1 Set glass or crystal phials_

_1 Telescope_

_1 Set brass scales_

_Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad_

_PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST-YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS_

'So much for getting a Nimbus 2000.' Harry thought to himself. Today was his birthday, but he still hadn't gotten a present.

He never got a lot, but he always got something…except his second birthday, but that WAS his fault…he DID accidentally blow up the cupboard that all of his presents were in.

He was drawn out of his thoughts as his mum suggested that they get their uniform first from Madam Malkins.

"Hogwarts dear?" Madam Malkin asked as Bella opened her mouth to ask. "We've got the lot here – another young man being fitted up in the back now."

As Harry got close enough to see the boy being fitted, he couldn't stop the groan that escaped.

"Madam, can I have my work robes in Acromantula silk please." Harry asked before they got close enough for the boy to hear.

"What are you doing here Potter?" the boy with slicked back blond hair and a pointy face snarled.

"Hogwarts, what do you think Malfoy?"

"You? Hogwarts? Merlin their standards are slipping if they let someone with as little power as you in."

"Whatever you say Malfoy. The sooner you shut up, the sooner we can get away from each other."

"Why should I shut up?"

"'Cause if you don't then you'll see just why the let me into Hogwarts." Harry snarled in a low voice that made Malfoy shiver in fear.

"Mr Malfoy, you can go now." Madam Malkin said before the insults turned into something more serious.

Once they'd finished in Madam Malkins, they went to Flourish and Blotts, followed by the Apothecary.

They then set off for Eeylops Owl Emporium, at first Harry was confused, they already had an owl, and they didn't need any more owl treats.

Once inside Bella turned to Harry and told him to: "Pick one."

"Huh?" he asked stupidly.

"Pick one. It IS your birthday you know." Bella said as if she was talking to a toddler.

Twenty minutes later they left the shop with a beautiful female snowy owl; it was white with black tips to its feathers. With her being carried carefully by Harry as she slept with her head under her wing they got an ice cream from Florean Fortescue's.

Once they had finished their ice creams they finally set off for their last stop; Ollivanders.

"I don't see why I need another wand." Harry complained as his feet throbbed in pain.

"Because yours isn't registered, if you go to school with that one it'll look suspicious that you haven't got one on records."

Entering the shop Harry saw that it appeared empty, he could feel the magic surrounding him, touching his core, flooding his senses, all the while he was looking around but didn't see Bella' smirk.

"Good afternoon." Said a soft voice making Harry and Blaise jump, while Bella' smirk grew bigger; it was a rare day that anyone snuck up on Harry, he had some sort of 'extra-sensory perception' as the muggles called it.

An old man was stood before them, his wide pale eyes staring at them like two misty silver moons.

"It is, isn't it? Nice and hot; great for water fights." He said in an overly cheerful voice.

"Ah, yes. Yes, yes, I was wondering when you would show up Mr Potter." He said before looking at Bella. "Or is it Mr Black?"

"Either, I don't mind."

"Understandable. You have your mothers eyes, but they shine with a power that your mother never had."

"Er…okay. Can we choose our wands now?"

"Of course…here you go." He said as he handed Harry a wand "Beechwood and dragon heartstring, nine inches long."

Before Harry could test it, it was yanked out of his hand by Ollivander and replaced by another one. Once the pile of tried wands stood at a foot high, Ollivander returned with a wand in his hand while muttering to himself what sounded like "I wonder."

Harry took the wand – phoenix feather, holly, 11inches – and instantly knew it was his, it didn't feel as…right as his other wand, but it still felt good. He gave it a little wave that caused green and red sparks to shoot out the end.

"Curious…very curious."

"What's curious?"

"I remember every wand I've ever sold, it just so happens that the phoenix that gave the feather that resides in your wand, gave another feather – just one other. It is curious that you get this wand and the other one gave you that scar."

Harry swallowed loudly, while Blaise was on the verge of gaping at Harry.

"Yes, I believe that we can expect great things of you, Mr Potter."

Harry quickly paid seven gold galleons for his wand and waited, impatiently, for Blaise to get her wand – oak, dragon heartstring and 12 and one half inches.

After they left the shop, they quickly made their way back to the leaky cauldron so they could floo home.


	4. The Hogwarts Express

Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Harry Potter – otherwise I wouldn't be here.

Shades Of Black – A Black Dawn.

Chapter 3: The Hogwarts Express.

The month of august was spent going through their set books and learning as much as possible – unfortunately, this meant that Harry's wandless practice had to be stopped for a short while; he'd have to restart once he got to Hogwarts.

He could animate nearly 500 men tanks and choppers for five minutes now, which is an incredible achievement – only Dumbledore would be able to rival the amount of power needed for that sort of animation.

While they were learning, Bella thought about something that was bugging her.

'Why didn't Dumbledore give us the key for so long?' she thought. 'I may use dark magic, but that doesn't make me a thief. Even if I was I wouldn't steal from a child, especially my own son, so I doubt that would be why. So why did he have the key?' She thought.

On the morning of the 1st of September, Harry woke like any other day that Blaise stayed over…well he woke up earlier than normal, but to the normal method; Blaise using the bed as a trampoline and occasionally standing on him.

"Get up!" she shouted in his ear after flopping down next to him, the other unusual thing about this morning was that Blaise was still in her pyjamas; last night there was a thunderstorm, and Blaise has had a fear of thunderstorms ever since she was almost hit by a bolt of lightning when she was little.

So she went to see Harry, he was the only person, besides her dad, that could comfort her during a thunderstorm. But going for walkabouts in a house that sometimes got very cold at night meant in search of heat she ended up staying in his bed – this had happened before, and Bella had teased them mercilessly about it, usually muttering things to do with being a little young whenever they were around.

So that's why Blaise was up so early, or so she claimed since she would never admit to being excited about something so normal as going to school.

"Come on, up, you don't want to miss the train, do you?" she screamed in his ear; a guaranteed way to get him up.

As he got up, he kept glaring at Blaise, until she got the message that she had better run for interrupting the wonderful dream he must have been having…he's such a delightful person in the morning.

Once they were packed and ready to go, they had to floo to the leaky cauldron, before walking through the crowded streets of London get to the station.

With Hedwig – Harry had found the name in his history book and decided that it fit his owl for some reason, and Blaise's owl, Spirit, flying to Hogwarts, Bella shrunk the trunks for them and only then did they set off two hours before they had to get on the train.

Once they arrived at Kings Cross station, they began their search for platform 9¾, Bella was no help since she was in an annoying mood, so she told them that it was a test for the first years – if they could find the platform, then they can go to Hogwarts.

They knew that she was joking, but that didn't change the fact that she wouldn't tell them where the platform was.

So that's why, with ten minutes to go until they had to get on the train, Bella finally relented and showed them how to get on the platform, only to find themselves right behind a large group of red-heads.

Harry had to scowl, just like Bella and Blaise – after Dumbledore failed to send Harry to the Dursleys, he tried to send him to the red-headed family ahead of them, the Weasleys, they were called.

Luckily for Harry, the Wizengamot didn't think the Weasleys could afford to feed another mouth and refused Dumbledore permission to take money from Harry's trust vault to pay for him to stay.

Which meant that Harry got to stay with Bellatrix.

Right now they were following the Weasleys to get onto the platform, the problem was that they were taking so long…but they were taught manners, unlike Malfoy, so they didn't push past them…they also didn't want a confrontation, especially not like last time that ended up with Bella being called a 'heartless bitch', she had spent a week with her knuckles in a bandage – if one thing could be said about Bella it was that she could hit very hard.

All of that added up to a mad rush to say goodbye and get on the train in time.

Once they were on the train and found a free compartment, they finally got to sit down as the train pulled away from the station, only to have their five minutes of 'relax time' interrupted by the compartment door opening to reveal Ron Weasley stood in the doorway.

"Oh, it's you, everywhere else is full, mind if I sit here?" Ron asked.

"Fine by us, don't expect us to be nice; your mum did call mine a heartless bitch."

"I don't expect anything from you, especially nice words…if it's any consolation, my mum regrets saying those things to yours."

"No, it's not really. Mum used to be one of them – she's the first to admit that, but she changed when she found me."

"Oh…you play Quidditch?"

"Not really…living in the middle of a muggle street sucks, no Quidditch."

"Oh…you do support a team right?"

"Of course! We support the _Tutshill Tornadoes;_ well I have little choice in which I support, dad owns five percent of the team and expects me to support them." Blaise said as she finally entered the conversation.

"At least you own part of a team." Ron mumbled to himself.

"It's not all its cracked up to be, all we really get is cheap tickets to games and the occasional bit of money depending on how well they are doing."

"I can vouch for that, mum owns part of the Nimbus corporation and all we get is inside information on new brooms…did you know they've already got a Nimbus 2001 planned and under development."

"Whatever." Ron said as they began talking (arguing) about Quidditch teams and different brooms.

Their 'discussion' was interrupted by a plump woman with a trolley full of food, Harry got a small pile of chocolate frogs and pumpkin pasties, Blaise had gotten some every flavour beans.

Once Harry had eaten all of his pasties, he finally got into his chocolate frogs, the first one he had, turned out to have the annoyingly familiar face of Albus Dumbledore in it, turning the card over, Harry read the familiar passage for what felt like the millionth time.

_Albus Dumbledore, currently headmaster of Hogwarts._

_Considered by many to be the greatest wizard of modern_

_times, Professor Dumbledore is particularly famous for_

_His defeat of the Dark Lord Grindlewald in 1945,_

_The discovery of the twelve uses of dragons blood_

_And his work on alchemy with his partner,_

_Nicolas Flamel. Professor Dumbledore enjoys_

_Chamber music and tenpin bowling._

Harry snorted, who cares that he likes tenpin bowling? It should say something like … Master Manipulator Albus Dumbledore, or stupid bas -.

His thoughts were cut off as the compartment door opened and a round-faced boy came in looking slightly flustered.

"Excuse me, but have you seen my toad, only he has a habit of trying to escape." The boy asked.

"Sorry Longbottom, no toads around here." Harry answered back as he wondered why the son of the countries two best Aurors had a toad for a pet.

"Oh well, if you see one, grab it and hold on to him for me will ya?"

"No problem." Harry said before the compartment door closed.

"Why would he actually look for a toad of all things, I'd lose it on purpose." Blaise thought out loud, almost blushing when she realised that she had uttered her thoughts.

"Too right, but then again I can't talk." Ron muttered before giving his pet rat a despairing look.

Blaise's reply was cut off by the compartment door opening again, this time to reveal a girl, probably another first year, that had large front teeth, lots of bushy hair, and when she spoke she did so in a bossy sort of voice – she looked vaguely familiar to Harry, as if he had seen her before but couldn't work out where.

"Have you seen a toad, only Neville's lost one."

"No, he's just been in to ask us that himself." Harry answered taking an almost instant dislike to her; she sounded like a female Malfoy.

"Oh, well if you see one then let us know." She said before deciding that she wanted a decent conversation instead of constantly asking the same things over and over again and came into the compartment and sat down near the door.

"I still can't believe this is happening, my parents are muggles, so I only discovered that I was a witch this summer. Do I know you? You look familiar." She finally asked Harry.

"I don't know. What's your name?"

"Hermione Granger."

"Ah, I know where I know you from, your parents are dentists aren't they?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"He lives on your street."

"Oh. So that's why people think you and your mum are so weird. Harry Potter right?"

"Yes, this is Blaise Zabini and that's Ron Weasley."

"I can introduce myself." Ron said defensively.

"I don't care, just as long as we can call truce between us…and your brothers, at least until Malfoy's been dealt with."

"I take it you all know each other." Hermione interrupted the 'discussion with raised voices' that was brewing.

"Yes, have you read any modern history books?"

"Yes, I've read all of the course books along with –"

"I don't want a list of which ones, I just wanted to know if you'd read about my part in the current world, 'cause after _that night_ my mum found me and adopted me the next day, but Dumbledore tried to send me to my muggle relatives home, when that failed, he tried to send me to the Weasleys, then the Longbottoms, and a few others…it took him a full year to stop trying to move my to a home where he could manipulate me. That's how we know Ron, me and Blaise have been friends since…well since I can remember."

"I don't think he would try to manipulate you."

"We do…so, what house are you hoping for?" Blaise said diffusing the situation; it was obvious that Hermione loved authority and believed that it was infallible.

"Ravenclaw, Gryffindors are too…_rash_ for me, Hufflepuffs are too quick to back down from an argument. Slytherin wouldn't be bad, a bit more cunning than I will ever be though."

"Excellent, we can be friends with you then, we want into Slytherin, Ravenclaw is our second choice." Blaise answered for Harry and herself. "He will obviously want to be in Gryffindor." She said for Ron.

"I can speak for myself." Ron said as he turned a bright red.

"Do we look like we care?" Harry shot back, but the door opening yet again cut off the retort.

"Well, well, well, potter actually managed to find the platform, what a surprise." Drawled the familiarly annoying voice of Draco Malfoy, when they all looked up they saw that he was being flanked by two huge boys that appeared to have less brains than a troll – not an easy thing to do.

"You know my mother, if she's in that sort of mood she can be really annoying…but don't you worry yourself; you still have the gold medal when it comes to 'the most annoying windbag awards'."

"I'd watch your mouth Potter, I'll be the one laughing when you're sorted in with the puffs."

"Whatever, now I must ask you to get out." Harry finished as the door slammed shut, missing Malfoys nose by an inch. "And stay out!" Harry shouted at Malfoys stunned look.

The rest of the journey was spent in moderate peace, the whole group, except Blaise since she already knew how he did it, managed to refrain from commenting on how he closed the door from the other side of the compartment.

About five minutes before they had finished getting changed into their uniform, the train pulled into Hogsmeade station.

After they pushed their way through the crowd to get onto the platform, the cold night air making them shiver, they heard a familiar voice that Harry had hoped he wouldn't hear quite yet.

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here!" Hagrid deep voice echoed over the platform.

"I'd hoped that he they'd stopped using him to show the first years to the castle." Harry whispered to Blaise who nodded in agreement.

"C'mon, follow me – any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"

the first years followed obediently behind Hagrid as they slipped, stumbled and slid down a steep narrow path.

They continued in almost total silence until Hagrids voice interrupted their concentration. "Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts on a sec, jus' round this bend here."

There was a loud "Oooooh!" from the first years as they caught there first glimpse of Hogwarts; the narrow path opened up suddenly on to the edge of a great black lake, the opposite cliff loomed high above the surface, and perched atop it was a magnificent castle with hundreds of lit windows sparkling like stars in the night sky, towers, turrets and ramparts silhouetted by the last rays of sun just before it finally dipped below the horizon.

"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called as he pointed to a fleet of small rowing boats sitting by the shore.

Harry quickly climbed into a boat followed by Blaise, Hermione and, to their dismay, Ron. Once they were all in a boat, Hagrid shouted 'forward' causing the boats to glide across the glass-like surface of the lake.

As they got closer to the cliff, they couldn't help but stare up at the castle towering over them. Harry and Blaise had had the first years journey to Hogwarts described to him by at least four different people…and overheard other people talking about it, now they couldn't help but agree with them that it was an absolutely beautiful sight.

As they approached the cliff, a murmur of alarm rose up from some of the other boats, mainly from the muggle-borns; they thought that they would hit the cliff face or rocks would punch holes in the boats.

"Heads down!" Hagrid yelled as the first boats reached the cliffs, they all bent down to avoid the curtain of ivy that was hung across what turned out to be a long dark tunnel that extended underneath Hogwarts.

The boats kept going on what appeared to be a rocky underground harbour. As all of the students clambered out of the boats, Hagrid gave Neville his toad back before leading them through a stone passageway that broke out into a smooth grass lawn that was in the shadow of the castle.

Hagrid then lead them up some stone steps to the huge front oak doors, then raised one of his massive fists and banged on the door three times.


	5. The Sorting Hat

Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Harry Potter – otherwise I wouldn't be here.

Shades Of Black – A Black Dawn.

Chapter 4: The Sorting Hat.

As the door opened, Harry couldn't help but classify the woman that stood in the doorway as someone not to cross. This, he realised, was professor Minerva McGonagall, head of Gryffindor house and transfiguration professor.

"The firs'-years, professor McGonagall." Said Hagrid.

"Thank you, Hagrid, I will take them from here." She replied as she opened the door wide for the first-years to step through.

The entrance hall alone was big enough for Harry to fit his entire house inside. The room was lit by flaming torches along the walls, which Harry had to remind himself, was because electricity doesn't work here – the magic is too concentrated and messes it up; his house didn't yet have enough power concentrated around it – it'll take another hundred years or so of having magicians (the name he started using for witches AND wizards when he was ten – calling every magical person a wizard or Wizardkind is sexist) for that to happen.

The ceiling of the entrance hall was so high that Harry couldn't see it. There was a large marble staircase leading up to the first floor opposite them with a stone staircase on either side of it that went down, presumably to the dungeons – although Harry knew from Nymph that one of the stair cases actually went to the Hufflepuff common room.

To the right were two huge doors that Harry assumed lead into the great hall, and judging from the sound of many voices coming from in there, the rest of the school must already be here.

McGonagall lead them to the left and into a small stone antechamber that the first years struggled to squeeze into, only to have to listen to McGee, as Nymph called her, start going on about the different houses, but didn't mention the method used to sort the students before she left to check that everyone in the great hall was ready.

McGonagall soon returned to take the first years to be sorted, only to find that they had been made more nervous thanks to some ghosts popping into the room while on their way to the start of term feast.

After being lead back across the entrance hall, they entered the great hall in single file; Harry looked around and decided that Trixy, Rommy and Nymphie needed to work on their descriptive skills since it was ten times more amazing than Harry had ever thought it would be.

The hall was twice the size of the entrance hall, the entrance doors were through one of the side walls and towards the rear of the hall. In the rear of the wall were two huge windows that looked like they went on until they reached the cloudy sky, which was really an enchantment on the ceiling that made it look like the sky outside.

The side walls each had two huge banners hanging down; one depicting each house crest, on the left wall was Slytherin and Ravenclaw, on the right was Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. The wall at the front had a huge banner across it that showed the Hogwarts crest.

The hall was lit by thousands of candles that floated above five tables: one at the head of the room and on a slightly raised platform – the head table for the staff. The other four tables were at a right angle to the head table and ran almost the full length of the hall.

Harry could see from the crests on the students' robes that the Slytherins were sat on the far left of the hall, the Ravenclaws were between them and the Hufflepuffs, which meant that the Gryffindors were at the far right.

McGonagall lead them to the middle of the hall before turning down and leading them between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables. When they reached the front of the hall, they could see that there was a stool with a hat on it in front of the head table.

After a few ridiculous ideas as to what the hat was for ran though Harrys', and the other first-years heads, it sang a song that revealed the first years as having a far too active imagination.

Then McGee started calling names off a roll of parchment starting with "Abbott, Hannah." who became a Hufflepuff, after a while it made it to "Granger, Hermione." After a few minutes it shouted out: "RAVENCLAW."

Unfortunately, for Harry, Malfoy became a Slytherin, and Blaise groaned when "Parkinson, Pansy." was sorted into Slytherin.

When it was Harry's turn, he walked up the steps amid hissing whispers with a confidence that he knew made him look cocky; like Malfoy, all talk with no means to back it up…just how he wanted people to think of him, for now at least.

After sitting down and putting the hat on, Harry found a voice in his head: 'hmm, lets see…plenty of courage and loyalty…lots of cunning and an excellent mind…Well where do I put you? You have traits from all four houses; you're more suited to Ravenclaw and Slytherin than the others though. I suppose I should tell you that…'

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Blaise was looking at Harry in worry, the hat was taking an unusually long time on him, she could only hope that he wouldn't be a Gryffindor or a Hufflepuff because the house rivalries would probably get in the way of their friendship.

She knew that it would most likely be between Slytherin and Ravenclaw: Ravenclaw due to his brains, and Slytherin due to his cunning.

She breathed a sigh of relief when the hats brim opened to allow it to shout out the name of the house he would spend the next seven years in: SLYTHERIN!

She started clapping only to realise that no one else was, Harry didn't seem to notice that he was the only person that no one cheered for. Looking around, Blaise saw that McGee was just staring at him in shock…just like every other person in the room; they were probably expecting a _Potter_ to get into Gryffindor.

What they had obviously forgotten was that Harry is a Potter _and_ a Black. As her eyes found the headmasters, she saw a mix of anger, disappointment and grief, as if he'd just lost his entire family…or a war.

She could understand the disappointment since he'd lost his chance at controlling such a powerful person, but such extreme grief she didn't understand at all. She couldn't understand the anger either.

Blaise just watched as Harry walked full of confidence down to the Slytherin table (and finally getting a response as the Slytherins started clapping politely, although some (very few) had smiles slowly appearing on their faces as they hoped that Harry was the one that could help them), sitting down a few places away from Malfoy and a silvery ghost that was obviously, if the silvery splodges that looked suspiciously like blood all over it were any indication, the Bloody Baron.

With the silence finally lifted by the clapping, McGee resumed calling out the names on the list – Turpin, Lisa became a Ravenclaw, Ron Weasley became a Gryffindor and finally it was Blaise' turn.

She walked up the steps as confidently as she could, desperately trying to ignore the fact that her stomach felt as though it would empty its contents over the hat that was about to sort her.

A second after she sat down, the hat sliding down over her eyes to rest on her nose cut off her view of the students.

'A Zabini eh, and just as complex as your father…except with different strengths. Yes you have his bravery and his brains, but you have your mothers' cunning…and lots of it. I see you want to join your friend in Slytherin…well I always did have a soft spot for match-making, enjoy yourself in…'

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Harry watched, his fingers crossed under the table, as he hoped that Blaise would be joining him in Slytherin. He watched as the hat slowly opened its brim and shouted out for the whole hall to hear: "Slytherin!"

Harry breathed a sigh of relief as Blaise tried not to run across the hall to take the seat next to him.

"Harry." Blaise asked while McGee took the hat and stool away.

"Yes?" he answered her.

"What did the hat say to you?"

"That I've got traits from all four houses but suit Slytherin and Ravenclaw better than the others…and that Dumbledore's a manipulative old bxxxxxd that tried to order it to put me in Gryffindor."

"So that's why he was angry, I was curious 'bout that."

"So what did the hat say to you?"

"Oh, nothing." She answered while fighting the blush that she knew was rising to the surface of her cheeks.

Harry would have started to tease her, but was cut off by Dumbledore standing to give the start of term notices: "Welcome, welcome to a new year at Hogwarts, I'd like to say a few words before we begin out banquet." He said but then seemed to forget what he meant to say and ended up blurting out: "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you."

Throughout the feast, Harry and Blaise were introduced to their fellow Slytherin first-years; Millicent Bulstrode was a large girl with an aggressively large jaw, Daphne Greengrass was smallish – about an inch shorter than Blaise who was half an inch shorter than Harry – she had brown hair and eyes, Sophie Moon was about the same height as Blaise with eyes that seemed to change between blue and grey depending on how the light caught them and strawberry-blond hair.

Theodore Nott was a thin boy, about half an inch taller than Harry, with small beady black eyes and short brown hair, Padma Patil – a surprise since her twin was in Gryffindor, was of Indian origin – warm brown eyes and black hair. Pansy Parkinson was a pug-faced girl with violet eyes and black hair, and they knew Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle.

Harry, always the analyst, quickly picked which 'faction' they all belonged to; Parkinson was acting as though she was already the head of year, along with Malfoy. They had Bulstrode, Crabbe and Goyle with them.

Harry and Blaise wanted to be separate from the system, so they were going to learn how to be animagi – something that Greg and Bella had refused to let them practice at home, just in case they became a dangerous animal…which they both knew they were; Harry was a black and silver phoenix and a Gryffin while Blaise could become a black panther.

If these were combined with the silencing charms they had read about, then they could be very stealthy animals, so they could be an excellent spying team.

They could see that Nott, although he wasn't entirely with them, appeared to be biased towards Malfoy and Parkinson.

Daphne, Padma and Sophie on the other hand appeared to want Harry and Blaise to be year heads from the way they were acting.

Once the feast had finished, Dumbledore stood to give the notices out; and finally succeeded in remembering his speech: "ahem, just a few more words now you are all fed and watered. I have a few start of term notices to give you…" Dumbledore began, telling them about the third floor corridor that was off limits, and that the forbidden forest was exactly as the name suggested – forbidden, along with the other notices.

After being made to sing the school song, they were finally dismissed to their dormitories…Harry and Blaise followed the female prefect despite knowing were they were going having had Nymphie steal a map from the Weasley twins the previous year…Harry never did getting round to asking if _everything_ changed when she used her unique ability to imitate Fred, or was it George, oh well, never mind.

After leaving the hall, they went past the marble staircase, and went down the stone staircase on the far side.

Upon entering the dungeons, they were shown through a maze of hallways until they eventually arrived at the entrance to the common room – a bare stretch of stone wall – and the prefect said the password with a look of mild annoyance on her face. "Eternal Purity." Before muttering something that sounded like 'I'll kill flint when I next see him.'

Upon entering the common room, they had a quick look around. It was a long low room with rough walls and ceiling – as if it was carved straight out of the rocks – and was illuminated by green spheres hanging from the ceiling by chains. On the left wall, roughly in the centre was a fire crackling merrily under an ornately carved mantelpiece.

Directly opposite the fire were two doors that the prefect quickly informed them that they lead to the dorm rooms – the one on the left went to the boys dormitory, the one on the right to the girls dorms.

The prefect then told everyone to go to bed before grabbing Harry and pulling him to the side.

"Harry, my name is Alice Greengrass, I know you're a half-blood, so are me and my sister. Do you know about the hierarchy in Slytherin?"

"Yes, mum explained it to me and Blaise."

"Good, so you'll know that to avoid the system, you'll need something to sell as a service, like knowledge or something like that."

"Yeah, I know."

"Good, I recommend that you get out of the system as quick as possible, being a half-blood, the other people will treat you like a slave, don't try fighting back or you'll pay for it in an extremely painful way."

"If you need help or advice, you can come to me. Okay?"

"Yeah, thanks. Out of curiosity, what's your…service?"

"Knowledge, homework help, that sort of thing. Night, night."

With that, she left and went through the doors to the girls' dorms, leaving Harry to go find his own. As he entered through the door, he saw that he was in a small corridor that turned left after about fifteen feet, and was then lined with doors at certain distances apart.

Each door had a different name on it to show who it belonged to and what year they were in.

When Harry found his room, it turned out to be a nicely sized, twelve-foot by twelve-foot room, the queen-sized bed pushed up in the centre of the far right wall, with a simple work desk in the back left corner of the room.

Climbing into bed, he slipped into a peaceful, undisturbed sleep.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

A/N: I'd just like to say that there is a reason I've put Padma in Slytherin, I need a reason for some squabbles to happen between the Gryffindors and the Slytherins, what better way than sibling rivalry. Plus, even with Harry and Blaise, the Slytherins need some more brains.

The reviewer response is less than half the word count for this chapter; but I'd like to ask you all to refrain from asking too many questions – I have to answer them, I can't help it.


	6. Until October Ends

Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Harry Potter – otherwise I wouldn't be here.

Shades Of Black – A Black Dawn.

Chapter 5: Until October Ends.

From the second Harry stepped out of his dormitory the next morning, hissing whispers followed him everywhere he went, he knew there was a reason that he didn't want his mum to keep him away from the wizarding public.

Slytherins are by definition, ambitious, though that ambition varies from person to person: some people want power, some want money, and some want to be treated like a king or queen.

Harry simply wanted to be the best that he could be at whatever job he got in the future.

So he quickly got rather annoyed at the fact that he was being followed round and treated like a god, people came up to him in the corridor and asked him if he wanted them to carry his bag, did he want them to go get him some food from the kitchens.

He found it particularly annoying that the one thing he needed help with wasn't being offered to him…how on earth do you find the next class?

Having left the map in his trunk so as to avoid suspicion from the twins, Blaise, Padma (who seemed to be one of the few that didn't try to pamper Harry) and himself were struggling hopelessly to find their way around the huge castle.

The task was made harder by the fact that the map couldn't be memorised since it changes as the castle does.

So with a hundred and forty–two staircases in the castle, many of which either moved or, for some reason or other wouldn't let them pass and the maze of corridors on each floor, they were late to most of their classes.

Most of the lessons were relatively easy for Harry and Blaise since it was mainly theory to begin with, and they had done lots of theory at home, they knew most of what they were doing.

Their first potions class on Friday morning was rather eventful though, Harry and Blaise knew up to half way through the second year potions syllabus, so when Snape, their head of house started picking on Harry in their first class, Harry managed to annoy Snape by answering all of the questions correctly, then, he did something that he had never done before: he took points off his own house for cheek!

Then when Harry made his potion perfect, Snape took points off Harry for being arrogant and bigheaded, seconds before Goyle's potion exploded in a magnificent fountain that all seemed to arc towards the greasy haired potions git.

Snape managed to save himself from being hit by a hasty shielding charm before bellowing at Goyle for being a dunderhead…although he refrained from taking points or even assigning a detention.

That afternoon, the Slytherin and Gryffindor first years had a free period, so Padma, Blaise and himself decided to start learning their way around the castle, while _not_ using the map…which turned out to be nigh on impossible.

So they weren't that surprised when they accidentally stumbled through a door that had been locked five minutes previously, only to find, to their horror, a huge three headed dog snarling at them in a way that made them yell out in fear before bolting from the room, and sealing the door with as many locking spells as they knew, which was quite a few considering that they had only just started practicing magic…legally, at least.

Half an hour later, they were sat in the library and reading up on charms while discussing the beast that they had inadvertently discovered.

"What the hell would a…a creature like that be doing in a school? What sort of creature is it anyway?"

"Blaise, you need to read more, it's a hell-hound, or a Cerberus, depends on who you talk to…it also explains what it would be doing there."

"Sorry Harry, but you've lost me, how does what it is explain what it's doing there?"

"Easy, hell-hounds got their name because they are supposed to _guard_ the gates to hell, I doubt that they really guard hells gates, but one things definite, they are excellent guard dogs." Padma answered for him.

"The question is, what would be in a school that is important enough to require a hell-hound as a guardian."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Harry's head jerked up suddenly, causing him to wince at the cracking sound and the pain that lanced through his neck and shoulders.

Looking to his left he saw Blaise sat snickering at his pain.

"Well, that should teach you not to leave your homework till the last minute, then fall asleep while doing it."

"Alright, alright I get your point. So…what brings you from plotting our first prank?" he grumbled at the still giggling girl stood over him.

"Padma spotted this article in the paper, it says that there was a break-in at Gringotts, the same day we were there, and well…Hagrid was been a little suspicious don't you think?"

"You think Hagrid broke into Gringotts?" Harry couldn't keep the incredulous look off his face.

"Hell no, he may look intimidating, but he couldn't get into any vault to save his life, let alone a high security one like that. But that article says that the vault broken into was emptied that same day, I think Hagrid emptied that vault and what ever was been kept inside is now being guarded by that bloody dog."

"It's a good theory, but the bank was packed, anyone of those people could have emptied that vault. Is this your theory or Padma's?"

"Both of ours."

"So why isn't she here to help you convince me?"

"Well. You see," she started before grimacing. "We were test making some potions for this coming prank, when one of them exploded, covering Padma, and now…well, she's sat on the toilet and I don't think she'll be leaving it until the potion wares off."

"What Potion and how long until it wares off?"

"Diarrhoea potion and it was a lot more powerful than normal, so about 6 hours."

"Ah, I see."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

As the weeks passed by, Harry learnt to loath his potions professor, who was unfortunately, also his head of house.

He had already come close to expulsion once, it had been his first flying lesson, and Neville Longbottom had shot into the air too early, then fallen off his broom and broken his wrist.

After madam Hooch had taken him to the hospital wing, Malfoy had picked up something that must have fallen out of Longbottoms pocket: his wand.

After he had threatened to hide it in a tree, he had taken the argument into the air, so Harry followed him, after a brief verbal sparing match, Malfoy threw the wand as hard as he could up into the air, so Harry followed it down, catching it at two feet above the ground.

Only to discover that Snape had been watching.

After yelling at him for being an idiot and threatening him with expulsion, he explained that he would give credit where credit is due and offered to talk to Marcus Flint about training him up for seeker next year.

So Harry was now going to one Quidditch practice per week to learn the skills that he didn't already have (he had already done some flying at both LeStrange and Zabini Manors).

He also spent a lot of time watching people, he had soon discovered that the resident know-it-all, wasn't a little known pureblood or a half-blood, but was a muggleborn, making her reason for being put in Ravenclaw obvious.

He had just decided that befriending her would be useful when Halloween rolled around, and after their first class (charms), she vanished.

Harry had just spotted her on the map (2nd floor girls bathroom) when his stomach decided to remind him that he hadn't eaten anything after breakfast due to the upcoming feast.

Within moments, his stomach had won the silent battle of will and he was sat in the great hall filling his empty stomach.

About halfway through the feast, the doors flew open and professor Quirrel stumbled in, collapsing to his knees almost instantly, while shouting as loud as he could…well as loud as one could while gasping for breath.

Though the whole hall had fallen silent upon his entry, so everyone heard what he said before he passed out; four words that sent the room into complete chaos. "Troll…in. the dungeons!"


	7. Happy Halloween

Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Harry Potter – otherwise I wouldn't be here.

A/N: the notice I just replaced with this chapter was mainly to see what the general thoughts were on femblaise, and while it is my story, meaning that I can do what I like in it, I don't want to do something that the _majority_ of my readers will not like/enjoy.

Reviewers:

Manatheron: I like the name ideas, but they don't strike me as the sort of name that one would give to a series, but they do go well with the first book.

Critic unknown: first off, the leader thing won't be sorted out until third or fourth year at least, and the whole falling in love at 11, they haven't and won't until they are a bit older, it's just that she's already got a crush on him (hat wanting to play matchmaker – blushing when asked about it) and is good at hiding it (I had my first crush on a girl at 8, so it isn't unrealistic).

The casual dating thing, well there probably will be a kiss or two in there for Harry, but since he's been brought up in the magical world, he doesn't even know that there is such a thing, many purebloods still partake in arranged marriages, so they find the idea of being so casual about it as ridiculous (there are exceptions to every rule).

The bit you said about knowing more about his growing up years, there will be memories of things that happened every now and then (not flashbacks, they annoy me a bit cause they make me think of cheap films that have the 'shimmer' effect for dreams and memories).

And finally, TO EVERYONE who reviewed, thank you for the support and positive feedback, I hope to keep up with the expectations.

Shades Of Black – A Black Dawn.

Chapter 6: Happy Halloween.

The hall erupted into chaos, people were screaming and running for the doors, Harry was amused to note that Malfoy was at the front of the screaming mass looking terrified.

Just before the front of the group reached the doors, Dumbledore stood up and fired an echoing gunshot-like blast of magic from the end of his wand

"Prefects, lead the students to your common rooms, professors are to accompany me to the dungeons."

Harry began to follow the Slytherin prefect, Alice Greengrass, when he realised something. "Alice, the troll's in the dungeons."

Alice stopped and turned to Harry, "What's that got to do with us?"

"The Slytherin common room is in the dungeons."

"Oh hell," she whispered as her face went white, before she began looking around for someone to notify. "Flint! Hey Flint! We can't go down to the common room, the troll's down there."

"Erm…astronomy tower go there, I'll tell a teacher, then follow you up." The current Slytherin prince said after a moment of thought, before running off towards the dungeons.

"Alright, you lot, stick together and follow me."

As they reached the second floor, Harry remembered something else, he grabbed Blaise and pulled her out of the group and pulled her around a corner so no one could see them.

"What?" she asked, rather confused.

"Granger, she doesn't know about the troll."

"Oh, you got the map?"

"Yeah." he said as he pulled it out.

He quickly activated it with a whispered password, within seconds he found her a short distance away from where they were crouched near the stairs to the third floor corridor.

They were about to move when Snape came thundering past them and shot up the stairs to the third floor corridor.

Blaise just had enough time for a muttered "What the hell?" when a disgusting stench hit their noses, making them gasp in shock before they started trying to cough up their lungs.

Gasping when assaulted by a horrible smell definitely wasn't a good idea.

When they managed to control their coughing and look up, they saw the troll, ten feet of disgusting, brainless troll, entering a doorway.

"We can lock it in." Harry said before Blaise shot that idea down.

"That's the girls bathroom, Granger's in there, besides, the troll would just bash it's way through the door, didn't you see it's club."

"Hell." Harry said as he sprinted down the corridor towards the room that now contained the troll, he vaguely recalled that this one bathroom was, for some reason, so well protected that it would take someone as powerful as Dumbledore to even damage that door.

Only the common rooms, the headmasters' office, the great hall and the main doors had that level of protection on them.

He only knew that because his mother had witnessed a duel between his father and Snape in this corridor, during which, a powerful reductor hex hit the door and barely even scorched it, even though that spell would have turned a normal door to dust, she was the only one to notice since everyone else was waiting for James to stop messing around and curse Snape properly.

Blaise didn't know about all that though that though.

As they reached the door, they heard a scream, then they barrelled through, smashing the door onto the wall as they burst in.

Looking round, they noticed that Granger was crouched at the back wall, a look of horror plastered on her face as she looked at the troll towering above her.

Harry quickly leapt into action, sending spell after spell at it.

"Stupefy, impedimentia, imobulus, potente imobulus, concussio, reducto." The stupefy just barely dazed it, the impediment and imobulus barely had any effect. The potente imobulus had a bit more of an effect, but barely noticeable, the concussion hex just made it angrier, while the reductor broke its left arm – causing the bone to fragment, tiny pieces of bone worked into the flesh and muscles causing unimaginable pain.

The troll raised its club in its right hand.

Once it was directly above it's head, Blaise cast a spell at it.

The troll let out a deafening roar as it swung its hand down…only to find that the club wasn't in it, looking up, all it saw was the club descending on to its skull, before everything went black.

Turning to Blaise, Harry said the one thing he was thinking. "Of all the spells to save our lives, I would have never thought it would be Wingardium Leviosa."

"The muggles got one thing right: often, the simplest solution is the best answer." She replied cheekily.

Harry just smiled at her before going over to Granger, seeing that she was nearly catatonic, he sat on his heels so that he was at her eye level, seeing that she still wasn't responding to his presence, he gently slapped her on the cheek. "Wake up Granger, the troll's out cold, it's safe to come out."

Before Hermione could recover, professors Snape, McGonagall and Quirrel came into the room.

(Insert scene from the books here; I haven't got the books with me, but it was going to be an almost carbon copy, just replacing Ron with Blaise)

Hermione was waiting for them outside. The three looked at each other for a moment, before they murmured thanks to each other, then they separated to find their housemates.

"Hermione?" Harry asked over his shoulder.

"Yes?"

"Can I speak to you in the library tomorrow lunch?"

"Umm, yeah, sure. Bye."


End file.
